Trump Wanted Tenfold Increase in Nuclear Weapons: Says Network

Just hours after one of America’s biggest news networks reported that Donald Trump wanted a tenfold increase in US nuclear weapons, he threatened to strip them of their broadcasting license.

“With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for the Country!”

Mr. Trump tweeted early Wednesday, US time. NBC had earlier posted a story alleging the president told a meeting of national security leaders in July that he wanted “what amounted to a nearly tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal”.

According to the network, Mr. Trump had been shown a slide that showed the steady reduction of US nukes since the late sixties, in line with post-cold war treaties.

“Trump indicated that he wanted a bigger stockpile, not the bottom position on that downward-sloping curve,” the NBC reported.

They based their story, they said, on conversations with three people who were in the room at the time.

Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a "tenfold" increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. Pure fiction, made up to demean. NBC = CNN!

President Trump’s advisers, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, were surprised, according to the network.

“Officials briefly explained the legal and practical impediments to a nuclear buildup and how the current military posture is stronger than it was at the height of the buildup,” the network reported, adding that no expansion is planned.

It was the second time in a week that NBC had referenced the July meeting. The first report suggested secretary of state Tillerson had emerged from the gathering calling the president a “moron” – they repeated that claim today too.

The threat provoked widespread anger on social media and elsewhere with many attacking the president for directly challenging the First Amendment, which guarantees the freedom of the press.

With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!

“The press should speak more honestly,” he went on. “I’ve seen a tremendously dishonest press.”

He said he knew the nuclear “capability we have, believe me, and it is awesome. It is massive.” A tenfold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal would be “totally unnecessary.”

“They make up stories like that, that’s just made up, and the generals will tell you that,” Mr. Trump said. “And then they have sources that don’t exist, they don’t exist. They make up the sources. There are no sources.”